A Blue Poppy blog post by Bob Quinn
I have quite a collection of shonishin tools. I use them in my classes to show possibilities, but in actual practice there are only a few I use again and again in my actual treatments. Students always ask how important it is to have an expensive teishin or other tools. (A teishin is one of the nine classical needles mentioned in the Ling Shu—it is about the size and shape of a toothpick, some bigger and some smaller than that.)
I am of two minds on this question. The most important thing with any tool is the person using it. If I were handed Willie Nelson’s guitar, I could not do with it what he does; but if he were handed a guitar from K-Mart, we would all hear the difference. It would not be the Willie we are used to, but it would still be worth listening to I suspect. For students the first focus should be on learning the techniques properly; only secondarily do they need to focus on spending a lot of money on tools. Once one has made progress on technique though, it is a good idea to procure a good quality tool.
A teishin looks like a simple enough tool to make. It is roughly cylindrical with tapering on both ends. Most of them have one slight ball-like end and one that is more pointed. It seems any jewelry-maker could make a good one. One can buy silver wire as a starting point, and from there is seems a simple enough task to produce the desired shape. There is obviously more to this question though than that.
In the past I studied Thai massage and practiced it for ten years. My teacher said that the first time he went to Thailand, he thought all the people doing traditional Thai massage looked so good. They were using the clever stretches characteristic of that style, and it is impressive to see. He learned fairly quickly though that there weren’t very many really good practitioners, people who really knew what they were doing.
It is like that with teishin. I found a Navajo silversmith in New Mexico whose work I admired. I asked him if he would make teishin for me. I showed him a few as examples and explained that I use them to treat infants and children. He said he could make a few for me. I asked if he would make 10-20 so I could sell some to my students. He replied that at his age he was not interested in production work any more. Making 20 teishin was not an interesting proposal. I tried to talk him into it, suggesting that when one starts with silver wire, it really isn’t that big a deal. He looked at me and said, ”I’d still have to hammer the spirit into it.” This was a big lesson for me.
Arnon Kartmazov, the blacksmith who makes the tools for Blue Poppy, invested years studying with blacksmiths in Israel and then 12 years in Japan, learning the techniques of masters. You just need to hold one of his tools in your hands and you know it possesses a rare quality. Over the past six or so years I have gifted these tools to six different Japanese acupuncture masters. They all responded immediately with appreciation for the quality of Arnon’s work. One even said that he did not think you could find comparable quality in Japan any longer. I told Arnon about the Navajo silversmith’s idea of hammering the spirit into the metal. He took the point, even though it might not be how he would express himself.
My suggestion to the reader is that Blue Poppy with these tools has a rare commodity that no other supply company can offer. These are lifetime tools at a very reasonable price. If you have patients who need a gentler style of treatment, this is an option you might want to investigate.
Best wishes all around,
Bob Quinn